Welcome, citizens, to this week’s installment of Multiver-City One! Each and every Wednesday we will be examining the latest Prog from Tharg and the droids over at 2000 AD, and giving you all the pertinent information you’ll need headed into this week’s Thrill-Zine! This week is the PERFECT week to try out the magazine, as Tharg has made sure every strip this week is starting over with a new jumping-on point. No excuse to not try it, humes!
Not only that, but to celebrate the start of our second year here at Multiver-City One, we’re running a contest this week, with prizes including an original Judge Dredd drawing from Simon Fraser! More details below!
This week’s cover is by Greg Staples.
I. THIS IS A GIVEAWAY
This is a big week for all things 2000 AD. Not only is it the 1,900th issue of their weekly comics anthology, but the guys who created everyone’s favorite fascist cop are together again to tell an all-new tale of swift and brutal justice. This Judge Dredd strip is just one of three stories kicking off this week, making this a perfect issue to start reading “2000 AD”! Between this big issue and last week’s anniversary of this very column, we’ve decided to celebrate by giving some of our dear readers a little present. So what can you win?
A collection of ‘Flesh’ signed by creator/writer/legend Pat Mills! ‘Flesh’ was one of the strips in the very first Prog, so it is fitting that an anniversary giveaway gives a nod to the magazine’s very beginning. You can read about the most recent “Flesh” strip in our coverage starting here, but in short, the strip combines dinosaur hunting, time travel, megacorporations, and harvesting animals from the past for food of the future. One of those weird combinations of elements that “2000 AD” does so well.
Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death! We’re going full-on Wagner/Grant/Bolland for this one. Not only does this collection introduce PSI Judge Anderson, not only does this also introduce the Dark Judges, not only is it meticulously illustrated by master art droid Brian Bolland; not only is it a stone-cold classic, but it also has, according to Warren Ellis, the great single panel in the history of comics. You’ll know it when you see it, but I’ll give you the hint that it involves a fist.
Original art by Simon Fraser! If all of that’s not enough, we also have some art to give away for those of you who like your Thrill-Power hung on your wall. Simon Fraser may be known primarily for Nikolai Dante (and rightly so as the co-creator of the character), but that doesn’t mean he is a slouch when it comes to drawing Judge Dredd, as you can see here:
So how can you get these zarjaz items in your hands? All you have to do is comment on this article below with an email address to be entered into the random drawing. Simple!
II. NOW ARRIVING
Before we get into the comics, let’s talk about some of the design changes readers will see with this issue. Right from the start there’s been a subtle but strong tweak made on the cover to the masthead, making it a little narrower with a new, single color font. The dateline and UPC have been slimmed into a little slug resting on the far left of the cover, and is probably my favorite of the tweaks debuting this week. Opening the magazine reveals a revamped table of contents page with a re-arranged layout and new color scheme. Each story sees redesigned credit slugs retaining familiar elements while still looking brand new. I think each of these changes brings a feeling of sleekness and modernity to the magazine, almost as if designed with an eye towards an iOS-powered future.
Tip of the hat to design droids PYE-01 and SAM 2.0 for their excellent work. In the world of magazine design, they’re fighting the good fight!
And funny story about looking for the names of the 2000 AD designers who made all this happen: did you know that there’s a mini-story buried in the indicia of every issue? How long has this been happening under all of our noses?!
Continued belowJudge Dredd: Block Judge, Part 1
Wagner and Ezquerra are reunited to tell this brand-new Judge Dredd story, and after reading it I gotta say they are both at the top of their game!
Like a lot of Wagner’s Dredd stories, this is one that uses the real world to give what’s happening in the comic context and weight. The strip opens with a report on the death of Judge Marlo Buller, who was the Block Judge for Gramercy Heights. Now, the term ‘Block Judge’ is a new one to me. I may have come across it before, but if I have it was in passing and didn’t stick in my brain. I gather that it is basically what it sounds like: the Judge in charge of a particular block. For new readers, blocks are mile-high skyscrapers that have essentially become self-contained neighborhoods unto themselves. The way they’re portrayed gives one the feeling residents would never have to leave, both because they’re so expansive and that they offer not only homes but all manner of shopping and entertainment. Gramercy Height, for example, boasts 307 levels, 20,000 apartments, and about 63,000 residents. Municipal housing goes up to the 260th level and private residences run from levels 261-307. There are two high schools in the block, Gramercy High and Gramercy Low, and those names should give a clue of their class structure and student expectations. They have shopping malls, concert halls, a sports arena, and a hospital. But one thing they no longer have is a Block Judge, which is where Dredd enters the fray.
Wagner wastes no time painting a picture of class divide, using Gramercy and its amenities to put the worlds of haves and have-nots in stark contrast with one another. Let’s go back to the schools for a moment. While touring the facilities with a member of Gramercy’s Block Committee, Judge Dredd is told that Gramercy Low is “nothing fancy, but… most students will emerge well-equipped to cope with a life of welfare dependency.” Then, without skipping a beat, the committee person turns from that startling proclamation to how wonderful the shopping malls in the block are. He also informed Dredd that the upper floors with the private residences have a their own elevators, separate from those used by residents of municipal housing. Dredd hears all of this and then declares his intention of whipping the block into shape and making major changes.
Ezquerra treats readers to the breakneck pace a Block Judge works at with a couple of roughly 12-panel pages Judges Dredd, Beeny, and new-to-the-streets Corrigan running roughshod over the block. In this montage is a panel of Dredd reviewing Gramercy’s budget to find money for facility improvements. Readers are given the impression that Dredd sees a need for change to happen on all levels of the block, not just the impoverished ones. He sees the disorder of the lower levels to be a result of run-down equipment and lax security. When told by the committee person that there was no money for improvements, Dredd assures him that he will find some fat to trim in the block’s ledger. This is, I think, quite an interesting view of Judge Dredd. It’s easy to think of him as a faceless jackbooted thug trampling on civil liberties and human rights. But here in Gramercy Heights, he seems sensitive to the unfairness of the many suffering so that the few may be comfortable. In no way am I trying to lead you to believe that Judge Dredd is any type of hero to the common man; I mean, he spent plenty of time this week beating up poor people. But this is what’s unique about how Judge Dredd operates: he’s like a force of nature. He has zero concern for the individual and focuses completely on the whole. He demands law and order not so that every person can be safe and happy, but so that the machine of the city can run as smoothly as possible. If his behavior just so happens to benefit some people, then so be it, but he will see that the letter of the law is strictly adhered to.
All in all, a hell of a first chapter, both in art and writing. I’m excited to see where it all goes from here!
Continued belowCredits: John Wagner (script), Carlos Ezquerra (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Kingdom: Aux Drift, Part 1
I’m fairly familiar with the majority of Dan Abnett’s Prog output, but I must say that this is my first exposure to ‘Kingdom’. Along with artist Richard Elson, Abnett re-introduces readers to Gene the Hackman, a grey-skinned future barbarian who I would not want to be angry with me. It seems that he’s on some type of quest to find what he refers to as “The Masters” who are in the “Big Wander.” It’s not exactly clear what all of that means yet, as Gene speaks in terms most of us are unfamiliar with. But that’s what Abnett does: he drops readers into a world already in progress and has enough faith in our intelligence to know we’ll be able to catch up, dropping subtle hints of the larger world but never spoon-feeding anyone.
This first chapter quite intrigued me. Gene inhabits a world of humans and different types of humanoid creatures where the humans are referred to as ‘masters’ and non-humans as ‘aux,’ and expresses surprise when he, in the course of this chapter, sees they share the same place. So it seems Abnett is suggesting that wherever Gene is from, it is most likely segregated. Like I said, some subtle world building. This was a fairly action-packed first chapter with lots of intriguing little bits that make me eager to read next week’s installment.
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Richard Elson (art), Abigail Ryder (color), Ellie DeVille (letters)
Stickleback: The Thru’Penny Opera, Part 1
Crime has a clown price (The Joker) and a Napoleon (Moriarty), but did you know it also has a pope? That would be Stickleback, making his Prog return here after an almost one-year absence. Close readers of Multiver-City One will remember seeing a little taste of Stickleback a month or so ago when we did an artist spotlight on strip artist D’Israeli. Now you get to really dive into the world he and writer Ian Edginton have created: a nineteenth-century London filled with street crime, supernatural elements, weirdness, and an art-style like nothing else on the stands right now.
We rejoin Stickleback as he is easing back into the role of crime lord over this alt-London. The distinctive bone-jutting visual he presents is one that kept him out of public sight and helped him round up the gang of freaks, oddballs, and quasi-mystical allies that he used to gain control of the city early on in this strip’s run. But his death and resurrection gave him a new body without those visual cues, so it is interesting to see him having to ‘dress up’ as the Stickleback everyone knows to do his business. Usually stories present normal-looking characters who hide a disfigured inner look, but Edgington has flipped that script here.
Being able to shed that skin and gain anonymity will probably come in handy, as we see various parties looking to make sure his second life is as short as possible. And along with that, what tale set in late 1800’s London doesn’t have a prostitute-targeting killer on the loose? Apparently this one, because while that plot thread is introduced in this Prog, Edginton wastes no time in making it abundantly clear he is taking this killer in a completely different and non-“From Hell” direction.
Have I mentioned this strip looks amazing? If I haven’t, I’m sure it will come up next week. And the week after. And the week after that. Because this is D’Israeli we’re talking about, and if there’s one thing he does better than producing amazing artwork, it’s doing it on a consistent basis. I’m so glad to have his work back in the Progs.
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), D’Israeli (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
III. GET PRIMED!
It is absolutely true that Prog 1900 is a jump-on point for new readers. Pick it up cold and come join the fun, as it were.
That said, Tharg has seen fit to bestow upon his thrill-seeking readership a primer to give them an all-in-one slab of additional context to accompany this week’s strips! Contained within its pages are the first two Judge Dredd strips from back in 1977’s Prog 2, as well as three of Wagner and Ezquerra’s collaborations from over the last 37 years. And you’ll find stories featuring this issue’s other characters: Stickleback and Gene the Hackman. Each of these stories are accompanied by forwards by their writers, Ian Edginton and Dan Abnett.
Continued belowDid we mention it was free?
You can download a free copy of the 97-page primer right here!
IV. FUTURE PERP FILES
ATTN: ALL CITIZENS OF THE MEG! Be aware that there is always a Judge watching you. Each sector is equipped with millions of HD-CCTV and bioID units. They are there for your protection. If your intent is upright citizenry, then you have no qualm with our surveillance. And remember: if you see something, you are now an accessory to a crime. That’s six months in an Iso-Cube, creep! Random CPU algorithms has selected this citizen for immediate surveillance and assessment…
That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1900 is on sale today and available from finer comic shops everywhere, from the 2000 AD Newsstand app for iPad and iPhone, and from 2000ADonline.com in print or DRM-free PDF and CBZ formats. So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”
